New Delhi, September 11
The rains continued to lash over the national Capital for the second consecutive day today.

The Met officials said the city recorded 38.2-mm rainfall till 8:30 am today. Delhiites further experienced 9.4-mm rainfall by 6 pm. The Capital had recorded 112-mm rainfall on yesterday.

Meanwhile, the weatherman has predicted that the pleasant weather would continue for another two days at least.

‘’A strong system that had formed a deep depression over the Bay of Bengal was affecting the plains of northwest India. The monsoon has been very active over the east and the central part of the country due to this system that is now affecting northwest India,’’ informed a Met official.

The city is likely to see some sunlight tomorrow, as the cyclone depression responsible for the rains is likely to shift.

According to the Met department, the incessant rain continued to pull the mercury down by several degrees. The maximum temperature was recorded at 26.4° Celsius while the minimum settled at 24° Celsius, one degree below normal.

The rains once again caused the same disturbances like – waterlogged roads, uprooted trees, dysfunctional traffic lights, traffic snarls, harried commuters and scared schoolchildren who were caught up for hours on chaotic roads.

Disorder reigned on the streets almost throughout the day with traffic crawling at a speed of two kilometres per hour at several places in the city. Road, Dhaula Kuan crossing and Delhi-Noida Expressway were the most affected.

It was a harrowing time for motorists for the second day with places like Parliament Street, Patel Chowk, Rajiv Chowk, Naraina, ITO, Model Town, Lakshmi Nagar, Patel Nagar, witnessing massive snarls.

The chaos once again showed the lack of preparedness of civic authorities to restore normalcy on Delhi’s roads as the heavy rainfall disrupted normal life.

New Delhi, September 11
The Delhi government is tightlipped over the stampede that took place at a government senior secondary school in Khajuri Khas of North-East Delhi yesterday, claiming five lives. It is waiting for the joint report of the police and administration.

The school remained closed today with heavy security deployment.

A senior officer of the education department said the government was waiting for the investigation report. Action would be taken on the basis of the report submitted by the local police as well as deputy commissioner of East Delhi.

A schoolteacher said the school administration was not at fault. It was the system’s fault. Earlier, morning and evening shift examinations used to be held. Question papers were selected by the subject teachers and got printed by the school administration. Now, under the new system, the exams are being conducted in one shift which is not practical because the school lacks space for making sitting arrangement for the students. Paper is got printed by the directorate of education.

He said to avoid incidents like yesterday’s, the department concerned should follow the old system.

Sources said the Lt-Governor of Delhi, Tejendra Khanna postponed his Iftar party due to the tragic incident of the school.

Secretary, Education of Delhi government, Rina Ray was not available for the comment.

Doctors attending the stampede victims said that a total of 34 patients were admitted yesterday.

Of them 14 have been discharged.

Twenty are still under treatment. Two of them are critical and one is on the ventilator.

New Delhi, September 11
Pratibha Devi (50) is among those people who respond bravely when life puts them in situations that are challenging and difficult.

When her husband threw her out of their house in Calcutta 35 years ago, Pratibha came to Delhi like many other migrants. She never knew that her unconditional love for animals would one day reveal her real heroism to the world.

She was awarded with Silver Medal for Acts of Social Courage in the 17th Godfrey Phillips Bravery National Award ceremony today. She was awarded by Salman Khurshid, union minister of state for corporate and minority affairs.

Pratibha lives under a plastic sheet behind a garbage dump of a parking lot near a PVR in south Delhi. She feeds and looks after 28 stray dogs and earns her living by selling plastic bottles and other scavenged items from the garbage areas.

No NGOs working for the protection of animals have ever come to help her. She has mostly been charged hefty amounts for the treatment of her pets. “I took my four dogs to a doctor who also runs an NGO for animals and she charged me Rs 300 for each dog,” said Pratibha.

Yashoda Palan (65), who is the winner of Mind of Steel Award has also shown the same valour in her not-so-usual life. Her legs and right hand are not functional. She cannot stand, sit or travel by train or bus, yet she attended school and acquired a degree in Bachelor of Arts.

Like her there were many others who were honoured for their courage and selfless service to society.

Prakash Murlidhar Amte and Dr Mandakini Amte were honoured with the Social Lifetime Achievement Award for their commitment towards improving the lives of tribal people of Maharashtra.

The Gold Medal for Physical Bravery went to Chintan Joshi who lost his life saving two boys from drowning. The silver and bronze in this category was dedicated to the late Subhash Swain and late Talib Hussain respectively.

An NGO Ashray from Andhra Pradesh and Parmaben Sawa also bagged gold and bronze medal in the category of Acts of Social Courage.

Gurgaon, September 11
The Delhi-Ajmer Shatabdi remained stranded for about three hours today, as the tracks were submerged in rain waters, even as the continuous showers for the past two days threw life out of gear in the district.

As per sources in the railways department, movements of trains were delayed as the tracks near Paatli village were submerged in water.

Movements of trains like Mandwar Express and Pooja Express too were affected due to the continuous rains.

However, the trains resumed their journey after the railways officials swung into action and made the tracks operational.

On roads too, commuters had to suffer due to traffic jams and continuous honking by drivers trying to push their way ahead.

Traffic moved at snail’s pace on most of the roads as vehicles moved bumper to bumper.

“The storm drainage system is not good enough to handle long spell of rains,” said Ram Prakash, who frequently travels to Delhi. He was late by more than two hours for his assignment due to traffic jams.

Areas like Sector 14, posh Palam Vihar, Railway road, Hero Honda Chowk and HUDA sectors were among the worst affected areas of the millennium city.

“Time and again we have been asking the administration to promote water harvesting systems across the city, but nothing has happened,” complained R.S. Rathee, president of the Gurgaon Citizens Council.

He said rain water harvesting systems could prevent waterlogging during the monsoons and could also help increase the groundwater level, which is rapidly depleting.

Meanwhile, schools witnessed low attendance as a significant number of parents preferred to keep their wards homes.

Gurgaon, September 11
The district administration has set up a control room for providing information about flooded areas so that the remedial action can be taken up on time. The numbers of control room are 0124-2303333 and 0124-2320508. The control room would remain functional round the clock. This was disclosed by the Gurgaon deputy commissioner Rajender Kataria here today.

After receiving information about waterlogging in some villages of the district, Kataria called an emergency meeting of the officers concerned and asked them to visit their areas. It was told in the meeting that an average rainfall of 195 mm has taken place in the district during the last two days.

He directed the officers of HUDA, public health, municipal corporation, irrigation, PWD B&R, DHBVN to take care of their respective duties. He asked them to start 24-hour helpline in their offices.

Kataria told the officers to take round of their areas and take up dewatering work wherever necessary. He mentioned that the HUDA authorities would look after the HUDA sectors while the public health and irrigation department authorities would take care of villages.

The revenue department officers would also visit the villages in their tehsil areas and give a daily report about flooding. Similarly, the authorities of municipal corporation would take up dewatering in corporation area.

Kataria also directed the SDMs concerned to keep watch on the waterlogging situation in their subdivisions. He also directed the water services department to ensure that drinking water supply was not affected in the villages.

In the meeting, SDM Gurgaon North Satender Duhan said that barring villages Kakrola, Bhangrola and some parts of Sidhravali, the situation was comfortable. Only these three villages were affected by waterlogging.

SDM Gurgaon South K.K. Gupta said that in Sohna area, there was no problem of flooding.

SDM Patoudi Vatsal Vasisht affirmed that 11 villages of Patoudi area were facing problem of waterlogging and work of draining out the water was going on in these villages.

The executive engineer (Mechanical) of irrigation department said that they had 56 pump sets. The deputy commissioner directed him to install diesel pumps at the waterlogged places from tonight.

New Delhi, September 11
As the tentacles of influenza A (H1N1) flu is catching up more and more people under its fold, 38-year-old Raj Bala, a resident of Faridabad, has become the sixth fatality today after 12-year-old Gauri from Dwarka lost the battle against the fatal virus yesterday in the national Capital.

Another 35-year-old man, who is a diabetic, is critical in the ICU of Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital (RML), and a woman, with symptoms of pneumonia is also serious at Lok Nayak Hospital (LN), as 54 fresh cases of the contagious flu piled up today in the Capital.

“The report of the woman, currently serious and admitted to LNH is still waited. But having chest symptoms of viral infection, she was initially admitted to Malviya Nagar Hospital, but with doctors there feeling the need for artificial ventilation, the patient was shifted to LN on Wednesday. She is responding well to treatment,” outlined Dr Amit Banerjee, the medical superintendent of LN.

According to the superintendent of RML, Dr Nitish Kumar Chaturvedi, both the fatalities were instances of late reporting with both delaying in seeking medication by five days despite falling under the category of high-risk group.

Dr Nitish said, “Having multitude of ailments, Raj, a diabetic and hypertensive along with a past history of bronchial asthma came to us on September 5, succumbed to the virus at 6 am today. Though she had been experiencing H1N1 symptoms since the day one she did not visit any doctor and it was only when her condition deteriorated on the fifth day, she was brought to RML.”

Besides, the 35-year-old man, who reported to RML on September 6 is critical, and is on life support and the hospital today reported two more confirmed cases of H1N1 flu.

In the wake of the recent deaths, the city doctors caution people against maintaining laxity on symptoms of H1N1.

As the virus has acclimatised itself to the environ, people especially those under high-risk groups, including children, old people and persons with chronic illnesses should immediately call upon a doctor if they experience any sign of H1N1, suggest Dr K Srinath Reddy of Public Health Foundation of India.

New Delhi, September 11
The central Delhi police in association with the Uttar Pradesh (UP) police has rescued Manoj Aggarwal, a Maharashtra-based paper merchant, after 65 days of illegal incarceration from a paper mill in Muzaffarnagar in UP.

The accused, managing director of one Rana Paper Mills in Muzaffarnagar, Noor Saleem Rana, is absconding. According to the police, there was a dispute between Manoj and Rana over a sum of Rs 14 lakh.

Reshma Aggarwal, Manoj’s wife, had reported to the police that her husband, who had gone to Delhi in relation with a court case, went missing on July 7, 2009.

Later, on July 13, Manoj’s elder brother got a call that Manoj was in the custody of the owner of Rana Paper Mills.

There was a business dispute between Rana and her husband. So, on Reshma’s strong suspicion, a case was lodged at the Nabi Karim police station in this connection and a police team was constituted to trace Manoj.

During the course of investigation, the police learnt that there was a dispute between Manoj and Rana over payment of Rs 14 lakh for the supply of papers to Manoj. Noor Saleem Rana had even got a case registered against Manoj at the Nai Mandi police station in Muzaffarnagar. Manoj had, however, obtained a stay order in the case from the Aurangabad bench of the Maharashtra High Court.

So, when Noor Saleem Rana got to know that Manoj would be going to Delhi, he involved two persons— Vishal Vishnoi and Manoj Sharma— to bring him to Muzaffarnagar.

The two hired men called Manoj at Mausam Vihar in Delhi on the pretext of materialising a business deal. As soon as Manoj reached there, the two armed men took him to Muzaffarnagar in a white Santro car and kept him on the premises of Rana Paper Mills for 65 days.

Manoj will now be produced before the Aurangabad bench of the Maharashtra High Court. Further investigation is in progress and efforts are being made to arrest the accused persons.

Noor Saleem Rana had unsuccessfully contested UP Assembly by-elections. Other accused Manoj Sharma and Vishal Vishnoi are sales managers with Sumit Agro Paper Mills in Delhi’s Laxmi Nagar and Anand Duplex in Mausam Vihar, respectively.

Gt Noida, September 11
The police has claimed to have nabbed two criminals carrying a reward of Rs 20,000 each for killing Dadri traders’ association chairman Vinode Goel. Goel was killed on August 30.

The arrested criminals have been identified as Vineet Kumar Adhana of Chitahera and Robin Tyagi of Muzzafarnagar. Two revolvers, two cell phones and a motorcycle have been seized from them.

The two have admitted their involvement in the murder of  Vinode Goel. They said they had targetted Vinode’s companion Manoj Goel, but the bullets hit Vinode instead.

The police said the accused were sharp shooters of Nandu, alias Ravana, and Amit Kasna gangs. Robin is a member of dreaded criminal Vicky Tyagi’s gang that operates in western UP.

ASP (rural) Surinder Kumar Verma said a team of UP police and special operations group arrested the two criminals on Thursday morning  at Rithari Road here after an encounter.

An investigating official said that Goel had been murdered to create panic among business community. Besides, the criminals wanted to teach a lesson to businessmen of the area for not fulfilling their extortion demands.

Interestingly, the father of one of the arrested criminals is an official in the UP police.

Nandu, alias Ravana, and five others were involved in the murder. At first FIRs against four Dadri-based businessmen were lodged, but later it transpired that Ravana and his gang had killed the Dadri traders’ association chief.

Apart from Robin and Vineet, Ravana, Ashok Bhatti of Chitehera, Umesh of Loni and Puneet of Delhi were involved in Vinode Goel’s murder. Ashok and Vineet were on one bike while Robin and Umesh were on another bike when they had set out to kill Vinode and Manoj Goel.

New Delhi, September 11
After attracting much resistance from students, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has finally closed the recently opened multinational coffee outlet Café Coffee Day.

The outlet that was opened almost a week ago in the School of Life Sciences was slowly becoming a major cause of concern amongs students, who have succeeded so far in keeping the campus free of multinationals.

The students said the university stood united against the proliferation of multinationals and would oppose any attempt of the administration to play around with its “socially sensitive policies.”

However, JNU administration maintained it had no role in the allotment of the coffee outlet and the tender for it was given by the school.

“The School of Life Sciences administration had decided to open the café overruling the JNU’s shop allotment sub-committee,” said Sandeep, president, JNUSU.

He said following much resistance from the students’ union, the decision was withdrawn and the tender for it would be opened again by campus development committee.

In a similar attempt by JNU administration in 2004, a Nestle outlet was opened on campus that caused a lot of problems not just for the authorities, but also created a stark divide amongst student wings.

“A general body meeting had to be called at that time and a clear mandate against the multinational outlet was achieved,” said a senior Ph.D. scholar at JNU.

He added, “It has been the most attended meeting on campus so far and the students decided that no such multinational firms would be allowed to operate in the university.”

JNU has many late-night and school dhabas and the students are reportedly happy with them. “Even if there are many students in JNU who are not against the multinational outlets politically, they could always go and enjoy their right to drink their brand of coffee outside the campus,” said Garima, a student of political science.

New Delhi, September 11
The police has cracked a shocking incident where a man used his son to lure another boy in the neighbourhood and then kidnapped him. The child has been rescued. Three persons have been arrested for the crime.

‘’Jagdish (45) allegedly kidnapped the nine-year-old son of his neighbour in Okhla Industrial Area by forcing his 12-year-old son to be friends with him and lure him to his place,’’ said DCP (south east) Shalini Singh.

According to the police, the incident took place on September 7. The next day Jagdish called up the victim’s father Ramesh Paswan and asked for Rs 5 lakh for his son’s release.

Jagdish’s other two accomplices – Jasbir, alias Jagbir (22), and his sister Tarawati (30), were arrested yesterday.